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Date: 1902-1904 Type: Cableway Status: Defunct   Click to view map Coordinates: 34°11'34.33" S 18°25'39.05" E

The aerial cableway which linked the dockyard to the Naval sanatorium on Red Hill overlooking the town. The Sanatorium was a convalescent unit for the recuperation of sick and injured seamen. Besides the cable car, the only access to the Sanatorium was via a long walk up the bridle-path, or a steep climb up several hundred steps. Thus a simple but effective way of keeping the patients away from the numerous public houses in the town was achieved. It was the last naval hospital to be built in Simon's Town. It replaced the unsatisfactory Naval Hospital on the Main Road at the southern end of the town which had become overcrowded, the fever ward having been described as "a most unsatisfactory building". Construction started in 1899 at an estimate of £7,000. The work was initially undertaken departmentally and most buildings were completed by 1904. For a history of the cableway see: Geocaching Placemark on the map locates the pylon at the lowest point.